The Cost of Fixing a Mercedes-Benz 600 Maybach: A Cautionary Tale

As I sit here with my trusty notebook and pen, I'm reminded that owning a high-performance car like this Mercedes-Benz 600 Maybach comes with its fair share of surprises. From the moment I purchased this vehicle, I knew it would be a project car, but nothing could have prepared me for the sheer amount of work required to get it back on the road.

One of the first major repairs was the fuel filter and air filter, which were replaced at a cost of $600. While these repairs may seem minor, they're just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the maintenance needs of this car. Next up was the Flex disk installation, which came out to be $800. The Flex disks are located on the drive shaft, and their replacement is crucial for maintaining the car's performance.

The repair estimate quickly added up, with the total cost coming in at a staggering $11,111. This includes the aforementioned repairs, as well as other minor issues such as scratches on the side panels and worn-out tires. However, it's worth noting that this figure doesn't include any major repairs, such as the hydraulic rams or top damage. Those are typically more expensive and require specialized expertise.

My Experience with a Mercedes-Benz Service Center

I recently had the opportunity to visit a local Mercedes-Benz service center, where I met with a representative named Drake. He was knowledgeable about the car's systems and understood my concerns about its maintenance needs. The repair estimate was quite high, but I appreciated his honesty and transparency throughout the process.

As it turns out, there are many things that can be done to maintain this car on your own. In fact, many of the repairs required to get it back in working order can be performed with basic tools and a willingness to learn. My goal is to empower my viewers by providing them with the knowledge and resources needed to take care of their own cars.

My Plans for the Project Car

Over the coming weeks and months, I'll be sharing my plans for this car, from cleaning it out to getting it back on the road. One of the first steps will be to get it into a standard condition that's worthy of its heritage. This may involve replacing worn-out parts, repairing damaged areas, and restoring its original appearance.

Throughout this process, I'll be documenting every step of the way, from my initial research to the final product. I'm excited to share my journey with you and hope that it will inspire others to take on their own car maintenance projects. So, stay tuned for more updates, and don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or comments.

In Conclusion

As I reflect on my experience with this Mercedes-Benz 600 Maybach, I'm reminded of the importance of being prepared for anything when it comes to car ownership. From unexpected repairs to minor maintenance tasks, there's always something that needs attention. However, with the right mindset and knowledge, these challenges can be overcome.

My goal is to provide you with a comprehensive guide to maintaining your own high-performance car, from basic repairs to more complex projects. Whether you're a seasoned mechanic or just starting out, I hope to empower you with the confidence and expertise needed to take care of your vehicle.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI've gone guys my name is devar and today I am in my wife's Hyundai Elantra I'm not in my SL 55 because I am outside of Mercedes Orlando and it's getting a little bit of work done now I haven't lost my mind it still is a DIY Channel I still do everything myself but the sl55 is getting a little bit of an inspection because I want to know what the dealer thinks is wrong with my car I've already outlined everything I think is wrong with my car you can see that in in the description I have a video about that but I don't know what the dealer thinks and I don't know how much it's going to cost for the dealer to fix all these problems and that's what I want to find out today I have left the car there overnight I took it there yesterday and I posted a picture on Instagram and with the title what the hell am I doing here and some of you guys thought I lost my mind and I might have but right now they called me and it's basically like a doctor calling you into their office saying that the results may be pretty grisly but I think that the results are probably ok I think that the repair cost is going to be around five thousand dollars now I haven't seen the car I haven't seen their report they haven't told me anything over the phone but five thousand dollars is round about where I think the car is going to be with dealer pricing and parts and labor and all that stuff considering that we fixed some of these issues we fix the motor mounts and did an air filter change and some scheduled maintenance and also the tires and all that so I think five grand is where it's going to cost is how much is going to cost to get this car a hundred percent whether or not I'm right we'll find out now so let's go in and see what they say well it turns out you can't film in a Mercedes dealer or at least they didn't let me they did give me this nice handy print out and take a look at how thick it is look oh my god this is uh this is a hard read so they gave me a rundown of everything if they think is wrong with this car and let me just go over some of the faults with this sheep sl55 AMG so this is a buyer's inspection that a lot of good it did because I already bought the car but this basically tells me that my front tires are bad so this is a red tire condition meaning that it needs to be replaced immediately so those are my front tires brake condition is yellow which means needs attention but it could wait a little while the battery was okay so both batteries are fine but then we get into some real meaty goodness here because the front brakes front brakes the pads and rotors and sensors all need to be replaced the driver side window switch is broken I wonder how they figure that out because I operated perfectly fine with my pinky and then I need a screw driver to basically put it back up the front bumper is gained I think I mean jammed the flex disk is work and cracked I have no idea what that means but I did inspect the Flex discs underneath or the rubber couplings that keep the drive shaft on and they do need replacement the exhaust system needs repair on the left side maybe they are talking about the exhaust being held up with a coat hanger but that that remains to be seen I think that's about transmission service I need a transmission service I also need a scheduled service beam which includes transmission service engine tune-up fuel filter replacement cabin filter replacement and yeah I think that's that's it for the bee service then we get into the visual inspection visual inspection is as follows front brake pads rotors a sensor slash paste this is what needs to be done the service tech his name is Drake is very very nice guy he said that the car is leaking oil quote all over the damn place so this means that they need to clean up the entire engine just to see where the oil leak is coming from because they couldn't figure it out so oil leaks just general oil leaks we have brake warning and - that brake warning that I got in as soon as I turn on the car yeah that is a problem under panels under panels are I think I left them in New Jersey honestly I don't think I ever put them back on I will go back for them at some point but okay window switch driver's side we already talked about that the seat trim on the driver's side yeah this is pretty pretty had a pretty jank and the front bumper damaged and flex disk left side exhaust hung by hanger okay so that was it they did notice that eagle-eyed Mercedes tech there so be serviced in 4,000 miles so wiper blades trans service / brake flush spark plugs fuel filter and engine air filter so that is the visual inspection now calmly interesting and the bit that the service tech told me this was scary and he said I don't know what you're going to do with the car but if I were you I would get rid of it and he told me that I could probably flip it for more than I got it for but at this point he's like you're going to have to spend a lot of money to get the car up to a certain standard so the last few pages of this report are all seven or eight pages of just diagnostic error codes and we have let's go the motor electronics we have electronic transmission control we have sensotronic brake control electronic stability program tire pressure monitor electronic ignition switch drivers signal acquisition and actuation module passenger side signal acquisition and activation module we have rear signal acquisition actually all right so that's that's a recurring theme here front left headlight headlamp range control I can't even read front right headlamp range control overhead control panel lower control panel I'm not just reading off every module in the car these are modules with faults so we have instrument cluster with maintenance interval display steering control modules steering column module rather parktronic system CD changer voice control system sound system cellular telephone one telematics system door control module left keyless go rollover bar / barrier roof control module electric seat adjustment front left electric chain adjustment front right multi cons for backrest front right automatic air-conditioning and we have reached the end of our error codes here's why it's not scaring me at all most of these codes the vast majority of these codes are something called stored codes now there are two different types of codes there's a current code in a stored code a stored code is basically a code that just gets stored in the computer at any point in time so this basically gives you a an idea of if there was a fault it happened at some point in the past a current code is one that keeps coming up a current code is one that is actually current and the reason why there's a stored and current is just so you'll know that there was a code sometime in the past and maybe it got fixed or maybe it hasn't registered in a while so that's why that's very useful to know every single one I see events stored storage storage storage storage stored everything here is stored and this makes sense because when I got the car I did have it on a battery tender but this car has two batteries one of the front one of the backs I didn't know that at the time so I just put a battery center on the front and the back was just kind of left to his own device that it went flat so as soon as I turned it on the car went nuts and told me that the electronic control programs were unavailable until that battery was charged off by the alternator recharging system of the car so these are all going to be stored codes if there are all current codes I would be very concerned the only thing current here is a component n1 5 - 3 control unit is defective on the electronic transmission control I have no idea what that means and I am not really too worried about that so the service tech at Mercedes told me that this was one of the scary codes and he had the impression that this car had a rough life and the transmission wasn't taken care of very well I don't know where we would get that idea Wow in my experience the cars been fine it hasn't missed a shift there's no hunting for years there's no surging or anything like that the car on the track was great the car on the dyno was great and honestly I'm not too concerned about this another one of these very scary codes he actually marked it all for it right here these these three mamuh jammers right here one is a sensotronic brake control and this doesn't even have there's not even any any explanation or anything it's just it's just literally a exclamation point here so he said that the Sentra conic brake control had a fault and that the entire system might need to be replaced or rather the SBC pump and builder you saw my video outlining everything knows that that might need to be replaced or it might not and there might be a way around that he was adamant that this was a major issue another thing with a major issue was the ESP electronic stability program I'm not even sure what this is because that just might be me taking off a wheel in the dyno and then that registering as a problem that it couldn't sense the wheels I really didn't have any issue the ESP works in this car so I'm not too concerned about that either but I think the part of the video that you guys wanted to know how much this all costs and I hope you're sitting down I know I know most of you are probably sitting down on the toilet so I say the liberty of asking him he didn't actually put all the prices in this report but I took a liberty of asking the service tech how much everything costs roundabout vo this base like asking doctor am i cured how much time is it going to take for me to get cured they're not going to tell you that they're going to they're going to give you a roundabout figure and because that number can go way way up but even this number they sold me sort of insane let's start off the transmission control unit and that had a fault in it and he said that this would be there might be some valve body issues and that can go all the way up up to and including $6,000 so this is if transmissions need to be replaced that's $8,000 so let's say six grand six grand for the TCU and the electronics and all the hard coding version coding whatever you call it so that's $6,000 the brakes the front brakes alone on this car they're really big there are eight piston calipers and they're large rotors 14.2 inch the cost to replace the pads and rotors and the sensors $1,200 the SBC the pump alone with the labor involved to put it in $2,500 moving along the Trenton's fluid flush and service I'm not sure why that wouldn't get done with the TCU but oh well that's separate that is 800 $11 filters miscellaneous filters so we have fuel filter air filter some of those are already changed but no matter that is $600 flex disk install the Flex disk the there's two of them on the drive shaft so the drive shaft flex disk that would be $800 that comes well based on what is written here these are the only faults the sort of egregious ones the ones that are that need attention as soon as possible according to Mercedes that comes out to eleven thousand nine hundred and eleven dollars um okay so I paid eight thousand nine hundred dollars for this car this is obviously way more but that's not even counting the ABC suspension the ABC suspension is be very very complicated and expensive hydropneumatic suspension that does in fact go wrong all the time on these cars that's not kind of that that didn't have any faults in it but I wager that's going to have folks in it in the future the cosmetic issues the bumper the wheels the the scratches on the side that doesn't cover any of that and the tires the tires need to be replaced those aren't cheap and the top I did fix that top for basically free the top is something that can go wrong and when it goes wrong it goes wrong big it's very expensive and the hydraulic rams and whatnot those tend to be a lot of money so all in all if we're talking about everything be lets say an ABC service ABC service fluid flush and the cosmetic issues and any other thing all the little bits and pieces we're talking between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars to fix this car this one hundred twenty thousand while example of an AMG all right so that's if you go to the dealer now I'm not I'm not at any point making fun of people at the dealer I'm not at any point making fun of people who go to the dealer that's perfectly fine they do a great job they actually treated me with they treated me very nicely one of the guys at the dealer actually recognized me from my post on Instagram and they were they were super nice I the guy that took care of me his name is Drake Drake was a very very nice guy he understood that the car maybe wasn't worth you know this amount of work and he tried to level with me and he's also an old-school car guy so yeah we found a rapport really nice guy everybody else was great so I had a good experience but I would never ever ever take my car to have twelve thousand dollars worth of stuff to do to it just because all this stuff all every single thing in this report is doable at home and it's not just stuff that needs to be version code it's not just stuff that may be harder to get to then in a regular car every single thing you can do on your own and I think that's going to be the point of the channel so next video on this car I'm going to be outlining my plans for this car and one of the first plans is to just get this back to zero gets us back to a standard that say Mercedes would would consider befitting a car of this stature well I mean I don't really care about Mercedes thinks because my car anyway as long as the car runs as it should I'll be good so that I'm a poet and I didn't even know it so in my next video I am going to be telling you everything about what I'm going to do to this car my plans for the car and this as a project car so it starts in the next video and I can't wait to show you guys what I have in store the point of my channel is to empower you to be able to buy a car like this and maintain it on your own now not everybody can do this there is going to be a certain learning curve there is going to be it is going to be more expensive than what it would cost on a civic but it is possible so with that I hope you'll join me on my journey with this car it is actually getting very hot in this car it is raining outside that's why I'm not outside and giving you the spiel out there I want it to be in here where it's I actually turn the a/c off so I'm not really sure why I'm in here I guess for continuity sake in any case as always if you like what I do and you'd like to share my content please do so hit the subscribe button and that would help me out immensely you can reach me at active arsh at gmail.com you can reach me on twitter and that is at the relative ours and the same thing on instagram and facebook comm slash asked of ours so I'm there I'm available and I'm easy to reach so that is it but until next time this is me reminding you that especially on cars like this with this crazy amount of faults you have to wrench every dayI've gone guys my name is devar and today I am in my wife's Hyundai Elantra I'm not in my SL 55 because I am outside of Mercedes Orlando and it's getting a little bit of work done now I haven't lost my mind it still is a DIY Channel I still do everything myself but the sl55 is getting a little bit of an inspection because I want to know what the dealer thinks is wrong with my car I've already outlined everything I think is wrong with my car you can see that in in the description I have a video about that but I don't know what the dealer thinks and I don't know how much it's going to cost for the dealer to fix all these problems and that's what I want to find out today I have left the car there overnight I took it there yesterday and I posted a picture on Instagram and with the title what the hell am I doing here and some of you guys thought I lost my mind and I might have but right now they called me and it's basically like a doctor calling you into their office saying that the results may be pretty grisly but I think that the results are probably ok I think that the repair cost is going to be around five thousand dollars now I haven't seen the car I haven't seen their report they haven't told me anything over the phone but five thousand dollars is round about where I think the car is going to be with dealer pricing and parts and labor and all that stuff considering that we fixed some of these issues we fix the motor mounts and did an air filter change and some scheduled maintenance and also the tires and all that so I think five grand is where it's going to cost is how much is going to cost to get this car a hundred percent whether or not I'm right we'll find out now so let's go in and see what they say well it turns out you can't film in a Mercedes dealer or at least they didn't let me they did give me this nice handy print out and take a look at how thick it is look oh my god this is uh this is a hard read so they gave me a rundown of everything if they think is wrong with this car and let me just go over some of the faults with this sheep sl55 AMG so this is a buyer's inspection that a lot of good it did because I already bought the car but this basically tells me that my front tires are bad so this is a red tire condition meaning that it needs to be replaced immediately so those are my front tires brake condition is yellow which means needs attention but it could wait a little while the battery was okay so both batteries are fine but then we get into some real meaty goodness here because the front brakes front brakes the pads and rotors and sensors all need to be replaced the driver side window switch is broken I wonder how they figure that out because I operated perfectly fine with my pinky and then I need a screw driver to basically put it back up the front bumper is gained I think I mean jammed the flex disk is work and cracked I have no idea what that means but I did inspect the Flex discs underneath or the rubber couplings that keep the drive shaft on and they do need replacement the exhaust system needs repair on the left side maybe they are talking about the exhaust being held up with a coat hanger but that that remains to be seen I think that's about transmission service I need a transmission service I also need a scheduled service beam which includes transmission service engine tune-up fuel filter replacement cabin filter replacement and yeah I think that's that's it for the bee service then we get into the visual inspection visual inspection is as follows front brake pads rotors a sensor slash paste this is what needs to be done the service tech his name is Drake is very very nice guy he said that the car is leaking oil quote all over the damn place so this means that they need to clean up the entire engine just to see where the oil leak is coming from because they couldn't figure it out so oil leaks just general oil leaks we have brake warning and - that brake warning that I got in as soon as I turn on the car yeah that is a problem under panels under panels are I think I left them in New Jersey honestly I don't think I ever put them back on I will go back for them at some point but okay window switch driver's side we already talked about that the seat trim on the driver's side yeah this is pretty pretty had a pretty jank and the front bumper damaged and flex disk left side exhaust hung by hanger okay so that was it they did notice that eagle-eyed Mercedes tech there so be serviced in 4,000 miles so wiper blades trans service / brake flush spark plugs fuel filter and engine air filter so that is the visual inspection now calmly interesting and the bit that the service tech told me this was scary and he said I don't know what you're going to do with the car but if I were you I would get rid of it and he told me that I could probably flip it for more than I got it for but at this point he's like you're going to have to spend a lot of money to get the car up to a certain standard so the last few pages of this report are all seven or eight pages of just diagnostic error codes and we have let's go the motor electronics we have electronic transmission control we have sensotronic brake control electronic stability program tire pressure monitor electronic ignition switch drivers signal acquisition and actuation module passenger side signal acquisition and activation module we have rear signal acquisition actually all right so that's that's a recurring theme here front left headlight headlamp range control I can't even read front right headlamp range control overhead control panel lower control panel I'm not just reading off every module in the car these are modules with faults so we have instrument cluster with maintenance interval display steering control modules steering column module rather parktronic system CD changer voice control system sound system cellular telephone one telematics system door control module left keyless go rollover bar / barrier roof control module electric seat adjustment front left electric chain adjustment front right multi cons for backrest front right automatic air-conditioning and we have reached the end of our error codes here's why it's not scaring me at all most of these codes the vast majority of these codes are something called stored codes now there are two different types of codes there's a current code in a stored code a stored code is basically a code that just gets stored in the computer at any point in time so this basically gives you a an idea of if there was a fault it happened at some point in the past a current code is one that keeps coming up a current code is one that is actually current and the reason why there's a stored and current is just so you'll know that there was a code sometime in the past and maybe it got fixed or maybe it hasn't registered in a while so that's why that's very useful to know every single one I see events stored storage storage storage storage stored everything here is stored and this makes sense because when I got the car I did have it on a battery tender but this car has two batteries one of the front one of the backs I didn't know that at the time so I just put a battery center on the front and the back was just kind of left to his own device that it went flat so as soon as I turned it on the car went nuts and told me that the electronic control programs were unavailable until that battery was charged off by the alternator recharging system of the car so these are all going to be stored codes if there are all current codes I would be very concerned the only thing current here is a component n1 5 - 3 control unit is defective on the electronic transmission control I have no idea what that means and I am not really too worried about that so the service tech at Mercedes told me that this was one of the scary codes and he had the impression that this car had a rough life and the transmission wasn't taken care of very well I don't know where we would get that idea Wow in my experience the cars been fine it hasn't missed a shift there's no hunting for years there's no surging or anything like that the car on the track was great the car on the dyno was great and honestly I'm not too concerned about this another one of these very scary codes he actually marked it all for it right here these these three mamuh jammers right here one is a sensotronic brake control and this doesn't even have there's not even any any explanation or anything it's just it's just literally a exclamation point here so he said that the Sentra conic brake control had a fault and that the entire system might need to be replaced or rather the SBC pump and builder you saw my video outlining everything knows that that might need to be replaced or it might not and there might be a way around that he was adamant that this was a major issue another thing with a major issue was the ESP electronic stability program I'm not even sure what this is because that just might be me taking off a wheel in the dyno and then that registering as a problem that it couldn't sense the wheels I really didn't have any issue the ESP works in this car so I'm not too concerned about that either but I think the part of the video that you guys wanted to know how much this all costs and I hope you're sitting down I know I know most of you are probably sitting down on the toilet so I say the liberty of asking him he didn't actually put all the prices in this report but I took a liberty of asking the service tech how much everything costs roundabout vo this base like asking doctor am i cured how much time is it going to take for me to get cured they're not going to tell you that they're going to they're going to give you a roundabout figure and because that number can go way way up but even this number they sold me sort of insane let's start off the transmission control unit and that had a fault in it and he said that this would be there might be some valve body issues and that can go all the way up up to and including $6,000 so this is if transmissions need to be replaced that's $8,000 so let's say six grand six grand for the TCU and the electronics and all the hard coding version coding whatever you call it so that's $6,000 the brakes the front brakes alone on this car they're really big there are eight piston calipers and they're large rotors 14.2 inch the cost to replace the pads and rotors and the sensors $1,200 the SBC the pump alone with the labor involved to put it in $2,500 moving along the Trenton's fluid flush and service I'm not sure why that wouldn't get done with the TCU but oh well that's separate that is 800 $11 filters miscellaneous filters so we have fuel filter air filter some of those are already changed but no matter that is $600 flex disk install the Flex disk the there's two of them on the drive shaft so the drive shaft flex disk that would be $800 that comes well based on what is written here these are the only faults the sort of egregious ones the ones that are that need attention as soon as possible according to Mercedes that comes out to eleven thousand nine hundred and eleven dollars um okay so I paid eight thousand nine hundred dollars for this car this is obviously way more but that's not even counting the ABC suspension the ABC suspension is be very very complicated and expensive hydropneumatic suspension that does in fact go wrong all the time on these cars that's not kind of that that didn't have any faults in it but I wager that's going to have folks in it in the future the cosmetic issues the bumper the wheels the the scratches on the side that doesn't cover any of that and the tires the tires need to be replaced those aren't cheap and the top I did fix that top for basically free the top is something that can go wrong and when it goes wrong it goes wrong big it's very expensive and the hydraulic rams and whatnot those tend to be a lot of money so all in all if we're talking about everything be lets say an ABC service ABC service fluid flush and the cosmetic issues and any other thing all the little bits and pieces we're talking between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars to fix this car this one hundred twenty thousand while example of an AMG all right so that's if you go to the dealer now I'm not I'm not at any point making fun of people at the dealer I'm not at any point making fun of people who go to the dealer that's perfectly fine they do a great job they actually treated me with they treated me very nicely one of the guys at the dealer actually recognized me from my post on Instagram and they were they were super nice I the guy that took care of me his name is Drake Drake was a very very nice guy he understood that the car maybe wasn't worth you know this amount of work and he tried to level with me and he's also an old-school car guy so yeah we found a rapport really nice guy everybody else was great so I had a good experience but I would never ever ever take my car to have twelve thousand dollars worth of stuff to do to it just because all this stuff all every single thing in this report is doable at home and it's not just stuff that needs to be version code it's not just stuff that may be harder to get to then in a regular car every single thing you can do on your own and I think that's going to be the point of the channel so next video on this car I'm going to be outlining my plans for this car and one of the first plans is to just get this back to zero gets us back to a standard that say Mercedes would would consider befitting a car of this stature well I mean I don't really care about Mercedes thinks because my car anyway as long as the car runs as it should I'll be good so that I'm a poet and I didn't even know it so in my next video I am going to be telling you everything about what I'm going to do to this car my plans for the car and this as a project car so it starts in the next video and I can't wait to show you guys what I have in store the point of my channel is to empower you to be able to buy a car like this and maintain it on your own now not everybody can do this there is going to be a certain learning curve there is going to be it is going to be more expensive than what it would cost on a civic but it is possible so with that I hope you'll join me on my journey with this car it is actually getting very hot in this car it is raining outside that's why I'm not outside and giving you the spiel out there I want it to be in here where it's I actually turn the a/c off so I'm not really sure why I'm in here I guess for continuity sake in any case as always if you like what I do and you'd like to share my content please do so hit the subscribe button and that would help me out immensely you can reach me at active arsh at gmail.com you can reach me on twitter and that is at the relative ours and the same thing on instagram and facebook comm slash asked of ours so I'm there I'm available and I'm easy to reach so that is it but until next time this is me reminding you that especially on cars like this with this crazy amount of faults you have to wrench every day\n"